MP3 players for audiobooks - anything better than a Sandisk Clip+?

[RootAnn]

So, thanks to the Hive, I have four SanDisk Clip+ MP3 players in my house. My kids mostly use them for audiobooks (Audible, Overdrive).

 

Audible has a limit on how many of one particular type of player you can have registered (i.e., download to) and I'm already over their limit (3).

 

Two of the players we have are usable but sub-par. One has to be plugged into the USB to turn on because the power button is completely broken. The other has a wonky headphones jack, so we have to rubberband around the top part of the mp3 player and then wedge something against the jack to get the sound to play.

 

Anyway, I'm looking for replacement(s). Is there anything out there in the same price range as the Clip+ that will work for Audible & Overdrive?

 

[We are not a techy household, own no i-devices or smartphones.]

[smudge]

Refurbed iPod? Two years in a row Santa brought DD1 a Sansa clip MP3 and neither one last past 4 months. She is not hard on stuff and would use it for music and audiobooks. I broke down and gave her my old iPod touch. No more problems!

[SEGway]

If you watch for sales, there are super cheap smartphones you can snag for $20 or so at Walmart or even on Amazon. They're usually in some rotten network which makes them undesirable as actual phones, but if you take out the sim card and use it just over your wifi (and then you could even take the password off and have it offline), you can put music/audible stuff on there and get tons more storage (if it can take an sd card) than a dedicated mp3 player. It's like a super cheap ipod substitution.

 

Also, they make cases that actually protect the device.

 

(I really like the ones we use--strictly on home wifi [mine] or offline [separate one for the kids, so they don't keep using mine].)

 

 

 

ETA: These phones typically have external speakers so headphones aren't necessary, but they almost all have headphone jacks and/or bluetooth capability for earphones/speakers if desired.

[dlcricket]

Ipods seem more expensive, but I bought my iPod Nano 6 years ago and it works just like new. I expect to use it for a few more years.  I use it a lot and carry it in my purse or backpack. It's been dropped numerous times. It just works and is less expensive than replacing an mp3 player every year or so.

 

As someone mentioned, refurbished iPods are a great deal. The Nano is a simple mp3 player with no apps or internet access. The Touch is like a smartphone without the phone. Sounds like a Nano would meet your needs.

[PeterPan]

I don't know what price you're seeing the sansa clip+ for, but it's showing up ~$75 on amazon.  At that price it's so archaic it's not worth the money.  Get a kindle fire for $99 new and have a significantly better product.  It will do Overdrive and Audible that you want AND give you features you don't realize you'll love, like Quizlet.  Quizlet is awesome with my ds and has SO many uses.  

 

Honestly, that mp3 player is so outdated, I wouldn't pay more than $20 for it.  If you do, you're overpaying.  Maybe you'll find a deal on ebay.  I've even boughten kindles on ebay.  If you're super, super careful (and use esnipe for your bidding), you can get good deals.  I'm an apple snob btw, loving all my apple products, but for my ds I use the kindle.  With the picture cover flow it's easy for a new/fledgling reader to find things.  It has all the PARENT CONTROLS I need to make sure he's not in anything I don't want him in.  You just go in the settings and lock things down using the parent controls.  Not hard at all.  You set up a password for the controls, and then just go in and turn off everything in settings.  His has location off, wifi off, shopping off, and I can turn off apps, camera, and more.  As much as you want off, you can have off.  Then, when you want the apps back on to use quizlet, you just swipe and turn them back on for a few minutes using your password.  So from his perspective it does what he wants (plays audiobooks all day, amazing battery, amazing storage), and from my perspective it does what I want (easy parental controls, auto-loads new books when I get it in wifi, ability to turn on apps when I want them).  And it's $99.  Sometimes they even run deals and drop the price further.

 

The 7" kindle is a very convenient size, easily portable.  Fire HD 7, 7" HD Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB - Includes Special Offers, Black  Here's the device that is $99.  Although it has ads, they are age-appropriate, never smut or anything objectionable.  Technically what ds is using is the 7" HDX.  The list price is $180-220, but I didn't pay nearly that.  You can watch on ebay and snag an HDX for around $120 pretty easily.  It will go higher if you want the higher GB.  I went all the way to the 64GB because ds is dyslexic and uses so many audiobooks.  (like literally ALL DAY)

 

I don't know that you can get into an ipod touch for that $100-ish pricepoint.  I just know you can for the kindle fire, and it's a REALLY nice product.  So it's almost the same price as what you were looking at (assuming the $75), but you'll be able to do ebooks, whispersync, set alarms for their school work or schedule (just started this with ds, LOVE), use quizlet, use recording apps for narrations, make media slideshows and do presentations, use etextbooks, check out not just audiobooks but ebooks through Overdrive, etc. etc., assign youtube playlists of science videos for them to watch, use the Microsoft OneNote app as a virtual notebook to assign things, share and turn in their work, etc. etc.  ALL that extra benefit for just $25 more!  That's why I'm saying I wouldn't dream of paying $75 for a Sansa Clip, not when for $25 you get SO much added benefit.

 

For covers, look at something like this  2014 PU Leather Folio Case Cover Stand For Amazon Kindle Fire HD + Bundle  It's $6 on ebay and like what I have on my ds' kindle fire.  It's *not* waterproof (ask me how we know), but it *is* perfectly adequate for normal use and mild drops.  My ds is a very rowdy boy and it survives him.  Actually, the cover survived the dunk in the tub while the kindle did not, lol.  Covers are cheap if you want a different kind.  Just saying they won't add much to the expense of this.

 

[RootAnn]

Thanks for the ideas.

 

Price is another reason I'm looking away from the Sansa Clip+. Ours were in the $25-30 range new, but they are now much pricier. I figured there must be better options out there now vs. several years ago when we picked up the Clips. The $20-40 range is what I'm looking for.

 

I really, really, really don't want to get a tablet for this - including a Kindle Fire. Sorry, OhE. I love Quizlet & Duolingo & would love to have something I could put Stack the States on, but I'm not going to introduce a tablet into our home at this time. DH feels even more strongly than I on this point, so that won't work for us. (If we get a tablet at some point, it will be mine and will only be available to "check out" on a limited basis for school stuff.) 

 

As I said in the OP, we are not a tech household. We are also not a screen household. We have no video games, no cable, no NetFlix, etc. We have one computer hard-wired to the internet. Our one cell phone is over five years old (7? 8?) and we like its profound 'dumbness.' As hilarious as it sounds, I'm the most "techy" person in the house & many people's five year olds would run rings around me.

 

If you watch for sales, there are super cheap smartphones you can snag for $20 or so at Walmart or even on Amazon. They're usually in some rotten network which makes them undesirable as actual phones, but if you take out the sim card and use it just over your wifi (and then you could even take the password off and have it offline), you can put music/audible stuff on there and get tons more storage (if it can take an sd card) than a dedicated mp3 player. It's like a super cheap ipod substitution.

 

Can you explain what "take the password off" means? Can you link to something that would work like what you talked about? I know absolutely nothing about smartphones and would have no idea even what to look for that would not allow calling or internet but that the kids could use just for their audiobooks?

ETA:  Would something like this work??

[SEGway]

Thanks for the ideas.

 

Price is another reason I'm looking away from the Sansa Clip+. Ours were in the $25-30 range new, but they are now much pricier. I figured there must be better options out there now vs. several years ago when we picked up the Clips. The $20-40 range is what I'm looking for.

 

I really, really, really don't want to get a tablet for this - including a Kindle Fire. Sorry, OhE. I love Quizlet & Duolingo & would love to have something I could put Stack the States on, but I'm not going to introduce a tablet into our home at this time. DH feels even more strongly than I on this point, so that won't work for us. (If we get a tablet at some point, it will be mine and will only be available to "check out" on a limited basis for school stuff.) 

 

As I said in the OP, we are not a tech household. We are also not a screen household. We have no video games, no cable, no NetFlix, etc. We have one computer hard-wired to the internet. Our one cell phone is over five years old (7? 8?) and we like its profound 'dumbness.' As hilarious as it sounds, I'm the most "techy" person in the house & many people's five year olds would run rings around me.

 

 

Can you explain what "take the password off" means? Can you link to something that would work like what you talked about? I know absolutely nothing about smartphones and would have no idea even what to look for that would not allow calling or internet but that the kids could use just for their audiobooks?

ETA:  Would something like this work??

I'm not sure from the description if that phone can do apps (which is how I know how to get Audible files to work on a device like that).

 

This is more like what I got for our kids. I think it's in the $30 dollar range, but I found one at a Shopko for 19.99 on sale.

 

You can keep the sim card out entirely. (This means no telephone service possibility. We also have an older model "dumb" phone on purpose for our cell phone.) 

 

You can buy up to a 32gb micro sd card to expand the memory on the particular phone linked above.

 

First, you can have it search manually for your home network and put in your password. Then download whatever audible content you own and transfer mp3 files to the music folder (using a cord to your computer or wherever you have it stored). You get it all set up the way you want it (in my case that included deleting a bunch of the icons for stuff that we weren't going to use), and then go back to the internet connection and disconnect from your home network and pick don't remember (or something similar) so it won't automatically reconnect to your home wifi. When the content you want your kids to be able to access is all on the device you can make sure the password is no longer entered on the device and it will need to be typed back in if you want it to access the internet. Our crew is young enough that this is sufficient to make sure they're not attempting to navigate the web unless it's with a parent on the laptop. For older, savvier, or more determined kids, this might be enough of a safeguard.

 

I don't put any games on the device. Basically, just our own music and audiobooks. (Although, you could do ebooks, too, if you're inclined. It's just a pretty small screen for that. But the kindle app would let you download a bunch of free stuff item by item and not have access to anything else without an internet connection.) Our kids can also use the camera/video feature to be silly, but they can't put anything online at all, they just use up some digital space and then erase it when they want to record something else.

 

(There's also a librivox app, but that seems to not always work the way I think it should. If you like librivox recordings, it might be easier to just download them as mp3 files and put them in the music folder instead of trying to mess with the app.)

 

I'm really pleased with this solution for our family. We've been listening to tons of audiobooks recently as a result of this. As always, YMMV. :)

Hope this helps!

 

 

 

Edited for clarity. Hopefully.

[kolamum]

You could look for older iPods. They had ones that don't do anything, but music or audio books. You have to hook them up to the computer & transfer everything on to them. They had their place, all though I found them slightly frustrating for audio books because if you hit the wrong button or held the button to long you lost your place pretty quickly. Another thought is to just go to Amazon & type in ipod. They bring up all sorts of MP3 players that are as low as $20.

[shawthorne44]

One thing you have to watch with mp3 players, particularly the low-end ones, is that some might:

• Not remember where you left off
• Remember where you left off, but start at the beginning of the track (particularly bad because audible tracks are so long.
• Automatically shuffle your selection

All those things are fine ... if you are listening to music.  

 

Look into the Creative Zen products.  The one I have now is Muzac (or something like that) but they have many models that would all be good.  I think mine was $30 on ebay.